I spent the better part of eight plus years in the great city of Chicago. I had a lot of Chicago style hot dogs while I was there and enjoyed 90% of them. I got to a lot of the iconic hot dog places around the city. The Wiener’s Circle (for a late night harangue no less), Chicago Dog, Portillo’s, Gold Coast, Maxwell Street, etc. Hot Doug’s closed before I could get to it and I never did make it to Superdawg.
So it is with great pleasure that I discovered Windy City Red Hots, right here in Loudoun County, VA. Living in Loudoun means driving up and down Route 7, past a flower nursery where the Windy City truck is parked. For the longest time I thought this had to be a sad, cruel joke, so I didn’t make time to stop and check it out.
Boy was I wrong! These guys are legit. I’ve only had a Polish, but it looked, smelled, and tasted straight from a Chicago city block party. They’ve also got red hots, Italian beef, and pizza puffs (?!?!). The Washington Post has a good article on Windy City Red Hots. Sorry, if it’s behind a pay wall. Now if they’d only add a small selection of brats, I’d be in heaven. Highly recommended and I plan on giving them my regular patronage.
I have to admit though, I’m a bit of a heretic. I like ketchup on my dogs. Sue me.